Target is feeling a fair amount of heat over donations it made to a Minnesota politician who opposes gay marriage this week. According to a Politico report, the company isn't backing down from its decision to do that and has rebuffed suggestions that it donates a similar amount to pro-gay candidates. Decidedly liberal group MoveOn.org is cheesed off about all of that and is taking the fight to airwaves and the street.

The group has created a 30-second ad slamming Target and asking consumers to boycott the nationwide retailer. The battle is all about Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, who received a $150,000 donation from Target. Human Rights Campaign and other gay rights groups are trying to apply pressure and turn public opinion against the company for its support of the would-be governor because of his staunch opposition to gay marriage.

We're not sure that it is working, but MoveOn is certainly a powerful force when it excerts to full measure of its wrath on a target.

Target this week issued a statement claiming that it "maintains and fully supports the gay and lesbian community in its workplaces and through corporate sponsorships."

MoveOn sees it differently: "Target's refusal to acknowledge its customers’ outrage at their attempt to buy elections is scandalous," Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn.org, said in the statement. "Americans have spoken: we don’t want corporations meddling in our democracy. Corporate money in elections is nothing more than political bribery and we’re not going to stop targeting Target until they stop trying to buy our elections."

Human Rights Campaign had hoped for a happier ending. The group had tried to convince the firm to donate $150,000 to pro-gay rights candidates and groups in Minnesota. After what Politico calls "weeks of negotiations," HRC officials said that those talks had "broken down without a deal." Instead, HRC will now spend $150,000 of its resources to defeat Emmer.

The gay community is also pressuring Best Buy, which donated $100,000 to Minnesota Forward’s pro-Emmer advertising campaign. While Best Buy receives one of the highest corporate rankings for workplace equality issues from the HRC, the move has angered the gay community. While acknowledging Best Buy's positive workplace policies, HRC says that the company still needs to "make things right in Minnesota."

Second, Target didn't give directly to his campaign, nor did it donate to quash any gay rights agenda. They gave money to Minnesota Forward, a pro-Emmer group that makes their own ads to support a conservative agenda in Minnesota, in a similar vein to MoveOn.org. They did this to support Emmer's pro-business agenda, and nothing more.

Third, MoveOn.org has spent more money on campaigns than almost any other group, save maybe the SEIU, another liberal group, so they really have no moral high ground to stand on when it comes to an "attempt to buy elections," as they put it. The US Supreme Court says that what Target did is perfectly legal and is protected via the First Amendment, so maybe they should just shut the fuck up about it.

Finally, I think that HRC is absolutely insane in demanding that corporations who financially support Emmer in some fashion should support his opponent as well. The reason they aren't supporting former Senator Mark Dayton is because of his blatant anti-business policies. It has absolutely nothing to do with gay rights.

"Third, MoveOn.org has spent more money on campaigns than almost any other group, save maybe the SEIU, another liberal group, so they really have no moral high ground to stand on when it comes to an "attempt to buy elections," as they put it."

MoveOn.org is a political organization. Target is a business. MoveOn's members know what they are supporting when they join and pay into the organization and volunteer to support those ideas/agendas. Target employs any random person and sells to anyone and those people aren't told what politics they are supporting and don't get a voice in making decisions for the company.

No, I'm sorry it's not the same thing. Frankly I don't want businesses having any right to spend any money on elections. If someone who OWNs a business or WORKs at a business supports a candidate or agenda they should use their own personal money to donate to it, if your entire employee base supports something and pays into it that will be a large contribution and a better example of a democratic society. Businesses should use their money for one thing and one thing only, to run their business (which includes paying their employees who can then donate).

Remember we can only judge people on one issue, and that is their views on Race/Gender/Sexual Persasion, not their politics as a whole. people forget we are supposed to elect someone for what they can offer to the comunity as a whole, not always their personal beliefs.

That's been my biggest problem with this whole situation, that this whole "gay rights" thing was literally just tacked on. It was literally Target giving money to a cause to improve businesses in Minnesota, and then this group gave money to Tom Emmer's campaign. Then, a gay rights group makes the jump to Target being anti-gay (which they aren't, I've worked there and personally witnessed how pro-gay they are as an organization) because Tom Emmer supported a bill against gay marriage here in Minnesota that never even got out of committee.

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Wymorence: For me it just boils down to the fact that, even at a giant company, when a game comes out annually it just gives it a vibe of being rushed out the door. And god knows Unity sucked some major lemur with all its bugs...03/31/2015 - 4:22pm

PHX Corp: I launched my spotify account today, and I kinda went a little overboard with adding music03/31/2015 - 3:59pm

Sora-Chan: Con't. Games like AC are a pain to someone like me who likes to play games in order. So when a game gets too many releases too quickly, it puts me off. Only exceptions are games that have no interconnected underlying stories like the FF games.03/31/2015 - 2:53pm

Sora-Chan: Wikipedia has rarely let me down on matters like this. But yeah... AC needs a break.. like two.. or three... or eight years.03/31/2015 - 2:51pm

Conster: There's 9 already?! I think I played 1, 2, and the ones inbetween 2 and 3.03/31/2015 - 2:23pm

Sora-Chan: Con't There are now Nine... of just the main entries into the series. There are 13 more in the "other games" department.03/31/2015 - 2:15pm

Sora-Chan: I tried to get into AC. Was having a decent time with the first one, at which point they had already released three titles. Then a fourth came out... then a fifth... the wall kept growing before I could finish the first.03/31/2015 - 2:14pm

Daniel Lewis: I think ubisoft should give AC a break before it's milked to death,and i'm a big fan of the games03/31/2015 - 1:15pm

Daniel Lewis: The only thing said i disagree with is the final quote on Men's experiences are seen to be universal but women are gendered,though doesn't anita say that games with male protagonists are male power fantasies,so in turn both are gendered03/31/2015 - 1:08pm

Daniel Lewis: i found the video to be much better than any of the TvW series and it's about time the positive women are put in the spotlight03/31/2015 - 1:06pm

Daniel Lewis: So feministfrequency released a positive female character video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmj2yJNUmQ03/31/2015 - 1:05pm

Daniel Lewis: I think the guy who made the direct leak said it was an april fools joke when a real one was announced03/31/2015 - 12:43pm

MaskedPixelante: No way Nintendo would let information like that get out. Remember, they shut down a memoir about the localization of Earthbound by enforcing a 20 year old NDA on the author.03/31/2015 - 12:42pm

james_fudge: Conster: the larger issue is that Ind. does not protect LGBTQ+ people under state law03/31/2015 - 12:11pm

PHX Corp: @MP I think it is confirmed(not an April Fools joke) http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-confirmed-for-wednesday-april-1st/03/31/2015 - 12:00pm

Conster: Apparently Pence intends to amend SB101 so denying service isn't allowed - without explicitly protecting LGBT+ and while still allowing the many other things you can get away with now if it's motivated by your religious beliefs.03/31/2015 - 11:53am

MaskedPixelante: http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/30/rumour-nintendo-direct-on-april-1st/ A supposed full leak of tomorrow's Nintendo Direct, so you can all laugh and laugh about how wrong it is.03/31/2015 - 11:35am

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/why-a-tekken-7-character-is-being-called-a-phoney-1694724959 Why a Tekken 7 Character Is Being Called a Phoney03/31/2015 - 10:08am